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I almost successfully cut Google out with one exception, YouTube, I don't seem to be able to find what I get there anywhere else. Fun anecdote: Google is very

by jeena 7y ago

I almost successfully cut Google out with one exception, YouTube, I don't seem to be able to find what I get there anywhere else. Fun anecdote: Google is very smart, because I've been a paying customer of YouTube for a long time they gave me a Google Nest Mini for Christmas free of charge. And it fills another niche which I can't really find a meaningful alternative for: Speech to text hardware/software which can be connected to my smart home (which is cloud free until now). They really do press the right buttons because I'm thinking of connecting this thing to my home. And then they can listen to everything I'm doing, which is not cool, but then I already have the device and so on ...

Cilvic 7y ago
Maybe look into Jarvis an open source stt and home automation
cycloptic 7y ago
I will only access youtube in ways that limit its tracking and anti-features. That means always using Tor and Youtube-dl/Invidious/Newpipe. Never use the official frontend or any of the official apps.
- IAmGraydon 7y ago
  Then you may have noticed that you can’t access Google through Tor. They intentionally send you to a captcha you can never solve.
  - cycloptic 7y ago
    No, I've never noticed that. I don't try to access google or youtube directly through Tor. I just use those programs.
    - lucb1e 7y ago
      Wait, you can get around IP bans (Google certainly has a CAPTCHA on anyone trying to access Search from a Tor exit node IP address) by using a different client? Like, the check is client-side? That seems odd.
      - Nextgrid 7y ago
        Presumably the captchas are only on the YouTube UI itself and not on the API endpoints that provide the data.
      - cycloptic 7y ago
        Please re-read my original post, it was about youtube, not search. But I don't think you can get around the Tor captcha on search, so at this time I would say avoid google search entirely if you care about not being tracked.
  - AshwinDurairaj 7y ago
    Assuming Tor Browser, just change Tor circuit, ctrl+l (I believe), until you get one without captcha (works after 2-3 times usually). Only use Google search when absolutely necessary though.
ignoramous 7y ago
Could one use AWS AppStream [0] or Mighty [1] or similar tech to proxy-view YouTube? [0] https://aws.amazon.com/appstream2/ https://aws.amazon.com/appstream2/ [1] https://mightyapp.com/ https://mightyapp.com/
- judge2020 7y ago
  I bet you would only get a few pages loaded before being captcha'd since the IP is still one of a cloud provider.
  - pzmarzly 7y ago
    It depends. I used to self-host a VPN on DigitalOcean's VPS and didn’t experience any issues when routing all my traffic through it. But I suspected being logged in to my Google account as well as presenting cookies created for a residential IP address helped with that.
weystrom 7y ago
RSS of my subscriptions into a youtube-dl script works well enough for me. You could also just watch YouTube with mpv.
doctor_eval 7y ago
Siri can control your smart home and doesn’t phone home (any more). You can hook it up with a raspberry pi to control just about anything, including generic zigbee devices.
- tksb 7y ago
  Just made this jump recently and have been pleasantly surprised that all stated is true and it's delightful to use. More importantly, I feel as if _we_ use Siri, and not the other way around. Fingers crossed…?
- ekianjo 7y ago
  That means you have to buy into another walled garden though.
  - cmdshiftf4 7y ago
    Not GP but I'm a happy Apple products/services customer. Rightly or wrongly, I feel like I purchase products and services from Apple, rather than the data from my usage of their products being their core product or service. If something abhorrent from Apple comes to the forefront then I'll happily switch back to self-build + Linux + self-hosted services, but for the time being I'm content. On the flip side, I've done everything I can to eradicate Google from my life and will continue to do so.
    - sneak 7y ago
      Apple runs special servers for iCloud inside of China so that the CCP can monitor all traffic and more effectively disappear people who transmit information that they don’t like.
- jeena 7y ago
  Does the voice recognition work hands free? On phones the microphones were never good enough to be used in the pocket or from a different room and I don't want to hold my phone in ma hand just to turn on the lights. Another problem is that it's as closed as googles eco system so I don't know what they're doing behind the scenes anyway, if it's not free software then what's the point switching from google to apple?
sprt 7y ago
What does YouTube have that you can't find elsewhere on the web?
- kortilla 7y ago
  90+% of the videos on Youtube.
- jeena 7y ago
  Off the top of my head, videos about: - how to build a smoker and smoke fish in it - how to butcher a pig - how to DIY motorized roller shades and integrate them into HomeAssistant - a video walk through Hebron - how to make a sabich and so on and so on, but perhaps I'm just bad at searching for videos? I do it like that: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+make+a+sabich+-site%3Ayoutube.com&t=ffab&atb=v144-1&iar=videos&iax=videos&ia=videos https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+make+a+sabich+-site%3Ayoutu... -
throw434324 7y ago
YouTube has become phenomenally boring of late no ? The censorship is really starting to kick with our SV overlord syndicate turning into the de facto Ministry of Truth.
dodobirdlord 7y ago
> And then they can listen to everything I'm doing, which is not cool If this is a concern to you I encourage you to read about hardware-implemented wake words to get a better understanding of how is that the microphone is only recording when you trigger the device. This has alleviated the concerns of a number of people I've spoken to about this. If you concern is about accidentally triggering the wake word and being recorded when you did not intend to be, can't help much with that, but it seems like something of a niche concern.
- kerkeslager 7y ago
  If this alleviates your concerns, I have a bridge to sell you. If you trust Google to only activate recording when you say a wake word, why not just send a stream of your audio data and trust them to delete it? If you're trusting amoral corporations whose entire business is selling your data with access to a bug in your house, just go the whole way.
- jeena 7y ago
  But there are 3rd party apps which can change the wake word so I'd assume it's implemented in software on the Google Home/Nest mini.

by jeena 7y ago

Cilvic 7y ago

Maybe look into Jarvis an open source stt and home automation

cycloptic 7y ago

I will only access youtube in ways that limit its tracking and anti-features. That means always using Tor and Youtube-dl/Invidious/Newpipe. Never use the official frontend or any of the official apps.

IAmGraydon 7y ago
Then you may have noticed that you can’t access Google through Tor. They intentionally send you to a captcha you can never solve.
- cycloptic 7y ago
  No, I've never noticed that. I don't try to access google or youtube directly through Tor. I just use those programs.
  - lucb1e 7y ago
    Wait, you can get around IP bans (Google certainly has a CAPTCHA on anyone trying to access Search from a Tor exit node IP address) by using a different client? Like, the check is client-side? That seems odd.
    - Nextgrid 7y ago
      Presumably the captchas are only on the YouTube UI itself and not on the API endpoints that provide the data.
    - cycloptic 7y ago
      Please re-read my original post, it was about youtube, not search. But I don't think you can get around the Tor captcha on search, so at this time I would say avoid google search entirely if you care about not being tracked.
- AshwinDurairaj 7y ago
  Assuming Tor Browser, just change Tor circuit, ctrl+l (I believe), until you get one without captcha (works after 2-3 times usually). Only use Google search when absolutely necessary though.

ignoramous 7y ago

Could one use AWS AppStream [0] or Mighty [1] or similar tech to proxy-view YouTube? [0] https://aws.amazon.com/appstream2/ https://aws.amazon.com/appstream2/ [1] https://mightyapp.com/ https://mightyapp.com/

judge2020 7y ago
I bet you would only get a few pages loaded before being captcha'd since the IP is still one of a cloud provider.
- pzmarzly 7y ago
  It depends. I used to self-host a VPN on DigitalOcean's VPS and didn’t experience any issues when routing all my traffic through it. But I suspected being logged in to my Google account as well as presenting cookies created for a residential IP address helped with that.

weystrom 7y ago

RSS of my subscriptions into a youtube-dl script works well enough for me. You could also just watch YouTube with mpv.

doctor_eval 7y ago

Siri can control your smart home and doesn’t phone home (any more). You can hook it up with a raspberry pi to control just about anything, including generic zigbee devices.

tksb 7y ago
Just made this jump recently and have been pleasantly surprised that all stated is true and it's delightful to use. More importantly, I feel as if _we_ use Siri, and not the other way around. Fingers crossed…?
ekianjo 7y ago
That means you have to buy into another walled garden though.
- cmdshiftf4 7y ago
  Not GP but I'm a happy Apple products/services customer. Rightly or wrongly, I feel like I purchase products and services from Apple, rather than the data from my usage of their products being their core product or service. If something abhorrent from Apple comes to the forefront then I'll happily switch back to self-build + Linux + self-hosted services, but for the time being I'm content. On the flip side, I've done everything I can to eradicate Google from my life and will continue to do so.
  - sneak 7y ago
    Apple runs special servers for iCloud inside of China so that the CCP can monitor all traffic and more effectively disappear people who transmit information that they don’t like.
jeena 7y ago
Does the voice recognition work hands free? On phones the microphones were never good enough to be used in the pocket or from a different room and I don't want to hold my phone in ma hand just to turn on the lights. Another problem is that it's as closed as googles eco system so I don't know what they're doing behind the scenes anyway, if it's not free software then what's the point switching from google to apple?

sprt 7y ago

What does YouTube have that you can't find elsewhere on the web?

kortilla 7y ago
90+% of the videos on Youtube.
jeena 7y ago
Off the top of my head, videos about: - how to build a smoker and smoke fish in it - how to butcher a pig - how to DIY motorized roller shades and integrate them into HomeAssistant - a video walk through Hebron - how to make a sabich and so on and so on, but perhaps I'm just bad at searching for videos? I do it like that: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+make+a+sabich+-site%3Ayoutube.com&t=ffab&atb=v144-1&iar=videos&iax=videos&ia=videos https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+make+a+sabich+-site%3Ayoutu... -

throw434324 7y ago

YouTube has become phenomenally boring of late no ? The censorship is really starting to kick with our SV overlord syndicate turning into the de facto Ministry of Truth.

dodobirdlord 7y ago

> And then they can listen to everything I'm doing, which is not cool If this is a concern to you I encourage you to read about hardware-implemented wake words to get a better understanding of how is that the microphone is only recording when you trigger the device. This has alleviated the concerns of a number of people I've spoken to about this. If you concern is about accidentally triggering the wake word and being recorded when you did not intend to be, can't help much with that, but it seems like something of a niche concern.

kerkeslager 7y ago
If this alleviates your concerns, I have a bridge to sell you. If you trust Google to only activate recording when you say a wake word, why not just send a stream of your audio data and trust them to delete it? If you're trusting amoral corporations whose entire business is selling your data with access to a bug in your house, just go the whole way.
jeena 7y ago
But there are 3rd party apps which can change the wake word so I'd assume it's implemented in software on the Google Home/Nest mini.